by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Friday November 05, 1999 @05:27PM (#1557979)
I don't want to sour the party at all, but before we get too happy lets stop and look at the facts.
1. Microsoft will NOT be broken up. I have heard some people discussing this as possibillity, but it's simply not going to happen unless Microsoft *chooses* this(and they won't). I don't care what anyone says, its just not going to happen. Standard oil was a completely different case this is different. With software you can simply revoke your competitive advantage (i.e. open source it) and you will no longer be a monopoly.
2. This won't change much for the final OS market. Linux won't suddenly gain marketshare because consumers aren't going to decide to stop using Windows just because a judge somewhere thinks that Microsoft uses unfair marketting practices.
The good news, on the other hand, is that this will certainly make it easier to purchase computers without windows pre-installed. One of Microsoft's many ways of forcing windows on it's consumer base is to force PC manufacturers to pay for each computer made, not how many copies of windows it actually installs. This practice will almost certainly be stopped.
Bottom Line: The war with Microsoft is far from over, but this is an excellent start.
Hold on just a minute (Score:1)
I don't want to sour the party at all, but before we get too happy lets stop and look at the facts.
1. Microsoft will NOT be broken up. I have heard some people discussing this as possibillity, but it's simply not going to happen unless Microsoft *chooses* this(and they won't). I don't care what anyone says, its just not going to happen. Standard oil was a completely different case this is different. With software you can simply revoke your competitive advantage (i.e. open source it) and you will no longer be a monopoly.
2. This won't change much for the final OS market. Linux won't suddenly gain marketshare because consumers aren't going to decide to stop using Windows just because a judge somewhere thinks that Microsoft uses unfair marketting practices.
The good news, on the other hand, is that this will certainly make it easier to purchase computers without windows pre-installed. One of Microsoft's many ways of forcing windows on it's consumer base is to force PC manufacturers to pay for each computer made, not how many copies of windows it actually installs. This practice will almost certainly be stopped.
Bottom Line: The war with Microsoft is far from over, but this is an excellent start.
-Cyberllama